Genzyme Named One of FORTUNE’s "100 Best Companies to Work For"

January 9, 2006, Genzyme Corp. (Nasdaq: GENZ) today announced that it has been selected by FORTUNE magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in the United States. Genzyme ranked 51 among the nation’s top employers. This was the first year the company was invited to participate in the highly competitive process to be named to the list, which will be published in the January 23 edition of the magazine, available on newsstands January 16 and at www.fortune.com today.

“It is an honor for Genzyme to be so highly regarded by its employees who participated in this process and provided their candid opinions on working at Genzyme,” stated Henri A. Termeer, chairman and chief executive officer of Genzyme. “We are proud of our unique company culture that encourages employees to be entrepreneurial and to seek to make a difference in the lives of patients with serious diseases. It is also wonderful to be recognized by FORTUNE as an outstanding company as we approach our twenty-fifth anniversary this year.”

To select the “100 Best Companies to Work For,” FORTUNE uses two criteria: the opinions of the company’s own employees and an evaluation of the policies and culture of each company. Two-thirds of each company’s total score is based on employee responses to a 57-question survey created by the Great Place to Work Institute. The survey goes to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company. More than 100,000 employees from 466 companies participated in the survey this year, up from 356 candidate companies last year. It asks about things such as attitudes toward management, job satisfaction, and camaraderie. The remaining one-third of the score comes from FORTUNE’s evaluation of each company’s demographic makeup, pay and benefit programs, paid time-off and work-family issues, and culture. The magazine scores companies in four areas: credibility (communication to employees), respect (opportunities and benefits), fairness (compensation, diversity), and pride/camaraderie (philanthropy, celebrations).

Genzyme’s comprehensive benefits program enables employees to maintain a healthy work/life balance by offering a variety of medical plans, programs and resources. Genzyme allows employees to use sick time to attend to personal matters such as ill children at home or the closing on a house; allows management discretion - not mandated policy - in making appropriate business choices when looking at flexible work schedules; offers a broad-based stock option program in which every employee is eligible to share in the success of the company, a 401(k) plan with a matching company contribution, and comprehensive health coverage.

Genzyme also is rated as one of the top ten pharmaceutical/biotech companies for which to work by scientists around the world. Respondents to a survey conducted by Science magazine last year rated companies on attributes including whether the company treats employees with respect, whether work-culture values are aligned with employees’ personal values, and whether the company has a clear vision of the future. Genzyme has received this top honor for three consecutive years and has earned high ratings for its social responsibility, innovative leadership and quality research.

Social responsibility is part of the culture at Genzyme where the company and its employees work to make a positive impact for patients and in our communities on both the global and grassroots levels. Genzyme provides free medicine to patients in more than 17 developing countries and believes in doing all it can to provide treatments for patients regardless of ability to pay. The Dow Jones Sustainability World Index selected Genzyme for membership in 2004 because of its economic, environmental and social performance, and the company was ranked second in a 2004 BusinessWeek survey of the world’s most generous in-kind givers as a percent of corporate revenue. In addition, Genzyme Center, the company’s world headquarters building, has been nationally recognized with a platinum rating - the highest of its kind - by the U.S. Green Building Council, the country’s foremost authority on environmentally responsible building practices.

About Genzyme

One of the world’s leading biotechnology companies, Genzyme is dedicated to making a major positive impact on the lives of people with serious diseases. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Genzyme’s founding. Since 1981, the company has grown from a small start-up to a diversified enterprise with more than 8,000 employees in locations spanning the globe. Genzyme has been selected by FORTUNE as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work for” in the United States.

With many established products and services helping patients in more than 80 countries, Genzyme is a leader in the effort to develop and apply the most advanced technologies in the life sciences. The company’s products and services are focused on rare inherited disorders, kidney disease, orthopaedics, cancer, transplant and immune diseases, and diagnostic testing. Genzyme’s commitment to innovation continues today with a substantial development program focused on these fields, as well as heart disease and other areas of unmet medical need.

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